''Sweepstakes'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Albert S. Rogell Albert S. Rogell (August 21, 1901 – April 7, 1988) was an American film director who was born in Oklahoma City and died in Los Angeles. Rogell directed more than a hundred movies between 1921 and 1958. He was known for an aggressive directing ...

from a screenplay written by Lew Lipton and

Ralph Murphy Ralph Murphy (May 1, 1895 – February 10, 1967) was an American film and television director. Born in Rockville, Connecticut, Murphy was active in films from 1931 through 1962, with some work in television. From 1941 to 1944 he was married to G ...

. The film stars

Eddie Quillan Edward Quillan (March 31, 1907 – July 19, 1990) was an American film actor and singer whose career began as a child on the vaudeville stages and silent film and continued through the age of television in the 1980s. Vaudeville and silent fi ...

James Gleason James Austin Gleason (May 23, 1882 – April 12, 1959) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter born in New York City. Gleason often portrayed "tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold." Early life Gleason was ...

Marian Nixon Marian Nixon (born Marja Nissinen; October 20, 1904 – February 13, 1983) was an American film actress. Sometimes credited as Marion Nixon, she appeared in more than 70 films. Career Born in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1904, to parents of Finnish d ...

, Lew Cody, and

Paul Hurst Paul Michael Hurst (born 25 September 1974) is an English football manager and former player. As a player, he was a left back from 1993 to 2008, notably playing his entire career at Rotherham United, bar a brief loan spell with Burton Albion i ...

, which centers around the travails and romances of jockey Buddy Doyle, known as the "Whoop-te-doo Kid" for his trademark yell during races. Produced by the newly formed RKO Pathé Pictures, this was the first film Charles R. Rogers would produce for the studio, after he replaced

William LeBaron William LeBaron (February 16, 1883February 9, 1958) was an American film producer, lyricist, librettist, playwright, and screenwriter. LeBaron authored several plays for Broadway; including the books and lyrics for several musicals in addit ...

as head of production. The film was released on July 10, 1931, through

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

Plot

Bud Doyle is a jockey who has discovered the secret to get his favorite mount, Six-Shooter, to boost his performance. If he simply chants the phrase, "Whoop-te-doo", the horse responds with a burst of speed. There is a special bond between the jockey and his mount, but there is increasing tension between Doyle and the horse's owner, Pop Blake (who also raised Doyle), over Doyle's relationship with local singer Babe Ellis. Blake sees Ellis as a distraction prior to the upcoming big race, the Camden Stakes. The owner of the club where Babe sings, Wally Weber, has his eyes on his horse winning the Camden Stakes. When the issues between Pop and Doyle come to a head, Pop tells Doyle that he has to choose: either he stops seeing Babe, or he'll be replaced as Six-Shooter's jockey in the big race. Angry and frustrated, Doyle quits. Weber approaches him to become the jockey for Rose Dawn, Weber's horse, and Doyle agrees, with the precondition that he not ride Royal Dawn in the Camden Stakes, for he wants Six-Shooter to still win the race. Weber accedes to that one precondition, however, on the day of the race, he makes it clear that Doyle is under contract, and that he will ride Rose Dawn in the race. Upset, Doyle has no choice but to ride Rose Dawn. However, during the race, he manages to chant his signature "Whoop-te-doo" to Six-Shooter, causing his old mount to win the race. Furious that his horse lost, Weber goes to the judges, who rule that Doyle threw the race, pulling back on Rose Dawn, to allow Six-Shooter to win, and suspend Doyle from horse-racing. Devastated, Doyle wanders from town to town, riding in small local races, until his identity is uncovered, and he is forced to move on. Soon, he is out of racing all together, and forced to taking one odd-job after another. Eventually, he ends up south of the border, in Tijuana, Mexico, working as a waiter. Doyle's friend, Sleepy Jones, hears of Doyle's plight. Jones gets the racing commission to lift the ban, by proving Doyle's innocence. He then, accompanied by Babe, gets a group to buy Six-Shooter from Pop, and they take the horse down to Tijuana, where there is another big race in the near future, the Tijuana Handicap. Doyle is reluctant to ride at first, however, he is eventually cajoled into it by Sleepy and Babe, and of course, his bond with Six-Shooter is there. He rides the horse to victory, re-establishing his credentials as a rider. The film ends by jumping a few years into the future, which shows Doyle and Babe happily married, with a child of their own.

Cast

(Cast list as per AFI database) *

as Bud Doyle * Lew Cody as Wally Weber *

as Sleepy Jones *

as Babe Ellis *

King Baggot William King Baggot (November 7, 1879 – July 11, 1948) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He was an internationally famous movie star of the silent film era. The first individually publicized leading man in America, Baggo ...

as Mike *

as Cantina Bartender * Clarence Wilson as Mr. Emory * Frederick Burton as Pop Blake * Billy Sullivan as Speed Martin *

Lillian Leighton Lillianne Brown Leighton (May 17, 1874 – March 19, 1956), known professionally as Lillian Leighton, was an American silent film actress. Leighton started her career in Chicago. Leighton was born in Auroraville, Wisconsin, on May 17, 187 ...

as Ma Clancy *

Mike Donlin Michael Joseph Donlin (May 30, 1878 – September 24, 1933) was an American professional baseball outfielder and actor. His Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned from 1899 to 1914 in which he played mainly in the National League for seven te ...

as The Dude

Preservation

The film is preserved in the Library of Congress collection, in nitrate form.''Catalog of Holdings, The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at the Library of Congress'' <--(book title), p.178 c.1978 by The American Film Institute

Production

Critical response

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' gave a very non-committal review of this film, with neither much praise or criticism. While he gave no indication of what he thought about the quality of the film, he enjoyed the performances of James Gleason and Lew Cody, and he called Quillan's performance as Doyle "original".

References

External links

*
allmovie.com
{{Albert S. Rogell 1931 films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Films directed by Albert S. Rogell American horse racing films RKO Pictures films Films set in Tijuana American comedy films 1931 comedy films 1930s American films English-language comedy films